1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for transmitting content over a communications network and, more particularly, to techniques for uploading content from a device to a remote network location.
2. Related Art
The Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web (the “Web”), is increasingly being used to store and exchange information and to perform commercial transactions. Although the Web was originally only capable of storing and displaying textual information, the Web may now be used to store, display, and exchange a wide variety of textual, graphical, and audio-visual information such as digital images and full-motion video.
Digital photography, for example, is becoming increasingly popular, spurred in large part by the advent of low-cost, high-quality digital cameras. An increasing number of web sites allow users to upload digital photographs and other digital images to the Web, whereby such images may subsequently be viewed, shared, edited, and printed on conventional printers using computers connected to the Web using conventional Internet connections.
To upload an image or other content to a web site from a mobile device (such as a digital camera), a user must typically use a conventional desktop or laptop computer to establish a Web connection using a conventional modem or other network connection device. The user then provides the content to the computer, such as by transferring the content from a floppy disk, CD, or the mobile device's memory to the computer. The user then selects a remote destination for the content. The user may, for examine, select a remote web site (such as the web site of an online photo album service) or another user as the remote destination.
The user then transmits the selected content to the selected remote destination. The transmission method that is used may vary depending on the kind of remote destination that is selected. If, for example, the remote destination is a web site, the user may transmit the content using conventional File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software or some other file transfer means. If the remote destination is an online photo album service or file storage service, the service may require the user to upload the content using the service's proprietary software or a web-based interface provided by the service. If the remote destination is another person, the user may need to use email software to transmit the content to the other person as an email attachment.
The content transmission process just described can be tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone for a variety of reasons. For example, the process described above may require the user to engage in many manual steps, use a variety of different software programs, and provide a variety of information to the computer. The process may also require the user to have a significant amount of technical knowledge and proficiency with using several different kinds of software and/or hardware. Assume, for example, that the content to be transmitted is a digital photograph stored in the memory of a digital camera. To provide the digital photograph to the computer, the user may need to physically connect the camera to the computer using a cable or other connection. Alternatively, the user may need to remove the camera's memory from the computer and insert the memory into a memory reader. To transfer the digital photograph to the computer, the user may need to initiate a “copy” operation using the computer's operating system or initiate a “transfer” operation using proprietary software associated with the user's particular digital camera.
To transmit the content to a desired remote destination, the user must typically identify the remote destination's online “address,” such as a web page address or an email address. To successfully transmit information to the desired remote destination, the user must therefore keep a record of and have access to the destination's address. It can be difficult and tedious for users, particularly novice and/or casual computer users, to keep track of large numbers of online addresses. Furthermore, the user may not have access to the necessary address at a particular time if, for example, the user is traveling. For these and other reasons it may be difficult or impossible for the user to provide the remote destination's address to the computer, thereby making it difficult or impossible to transmit the content to the remote destination. Furthermore, as described above, the particular transmission method that is required to transmit particular content may vary depending on the kind of content and/or the selected remote destination. The user may, for example, need to use multiple software programs to transmit different kinds of content and/or to transmit content to multiple destinations. For example, it may be necessary to use FTP software to transmit content to web sites and to use email software to transmit content to other users. As a result, the user may need to learn how to use each such software program to transmit content to particular kinds of destinations. This can be difficult and time-consuming, particularly for novice and/or casual computer users. These problems are further compounded in the situation where the user desires to transmit particular content to multiple remote destinations simultaneously. The user may, for example, desire to transmit a digital image simultaneously to several friends and to an online photo album service for storage. In such a situation, the user may need to initiate a separate manual transmission of the content for each desired destination. The problems described above are also further compounded in the increasingly common situation in which the user desires to permanently store content at a remote location (such as an online file storage service) rather than on the hard drive of the user's computer. In such a case, the user may transmit content (such as digital photographs) to an online service and then erase, overwrite, discard, or otherwise not retain an original copy of the content locally. If the user subsequently desires to transmit some or all of the content to another remote destination, it may be necessary for the user to engage in a significant amount of tedious and time-consuming activity. If, for example, the online service at which the content is remotely stored does not provide a feature for transmitting the content to another person by email, the user may need to download the content from the online service to the user's local computer and then transmit the content to the other person using email software, which can be tedious and time-consuming for all of the reasons described above. Furthermore, the requirement that the source of the content (e.g., a digital camera) be connected to a host computer has a variety of disadvantages. For example, a mobile computer user who desires the ability to transmit content from a variety of locations (such as at home and at the office) typically must have access to a Web-connected computer in each such location. Using the techniques described above, the content source must be connected to a computer to upload content to the Web and to transmit the content to services and other users. As a result, a user who wishes to transmit such content may be required to travel with both the content source and a laptop computer, or may be limited to uploading content from locations at which a Web-connected desktop computer is available. The requirement that the content source be connected to a computer therefore limits the mobility of the user and limits the range of locations from which content may be uploaded. This may be particularly problematic when the content source is a mobile device, such as a digital camera.
What is needed, therefore, are improved techniques for uploading content from a device to a remote location.